Housing is probably the biggest expense most of us have, so it’s no wonder most people in this hobby try to find a way to earn miles on rent payments. Plastiq is the service I’ve used over the past few years to make mortgage payments. You can pay virtually anyone using Plastiq, which accepts all major credit cards. The best part? Right now, all Plastiq payments made with the Chase Ink Business Preferred earn 3x points.
Are 3X points worth the Plastiq fees?
Plastiq imposes a 2.5% fee, which can be tough to justify when you’re only earning 1 mile per $1 spent. It’s certainly worth it if you’re trying to meet credit card spending requirements, but outside of that it doesn’t always make sense. However, at 3x points per $1 spent it can absolutely make sense to make Plastiq payments using an Ink Business Preferred Card.
For starters, you’re earning Ultimate Rewards points which are very valuable, thanks to an extensive partner transfer list. Redeeming points through the Ultimate Rewards Travel portal with a Sapphire Reserve would get you the equivalent of 4.5 cents worth of value. That’s well worth the 2.5% Plastic fee you’d spend to earn those miles.
Ink Preferred Plus 3X points
If 3x Ultimate Rewards points doesn’t sound like much, it adds up fast. If you make $3,000 worth of monthly payments through Plastiq, you’ll earn 108,000 Ultimate Rewards points per year. Redeeming those points through Ultimate Rewards Travel alone would get you a minimum of $1,620 worth of value.
Redeem those points for an international roundtrip business class ticket and you’ll get well over $2,500 worth of value out of your points. That’s pretty incredible, considering that $36,000 worth of Plastiq payments would incur $900 worth of fees. At 3X points, you’re coming out way ahead by using your Ink Plus Preferred Card for Plastiq payments.
Comparing Plastiq Ink Preferred’s 3X points with manufactured spending
How does the Ink Preferred Plus Card’s fee per point earned compare to to common manufactured spending techniques? The cost ends up being higher than buying gift cards from most other merchants using a credit cards that earns 1 mile per $1 spent.
However, keep in mind that Plastiq is one more way to diversify your credit card spending and possibly keep shut-downs at bay. If you’re earning Fee-Free Dollars via referral links, your out of pocket cost could be even lower (or $0!).
Plastiq Ink Preferred: $8.33 per 1,000 points
Simon Mall: $7.90 per 1,000 points
Giftcards.com: ~$4.38 per 1,000 points
Office Supply Stores: ~$5.97 per 1,000 points
Should you get an Ink Plus Preferred Card?
Coming from someone who doesn’t have referral links to hawk – it’s totally worth it to pick up a Chase Ink Plus Preferred Card in order to earn 3X points on Plastiq payments. It’s not the only thing you should use the card for, but if you can earn 3X on rent, student loan and other payments, why would you pass that up?
If you’re able to off-set Plastiq fees by referring your friends and family to the service, it can be a cheap way to earn miles on everything at very little out of pocket cost. It also helps that the card is currently offering 80,000 bonus points after $5,000 spent in 3 months. If that spending requirement scared you away before, Plastiq should alleviate those fears.
Have you picked up a Chase Ink Plus Preferred Card in order to earn 3X points on Plastiq payments? Why or why not?
Would it work for ink plus too?
I would also be interested to know this answer
It does not. Tried it June 2018 and did not get the 5X
I do not have an ink preferred but I do have a CIC, CF, CFU and an IHG. Would any of these work with paying a mortgage payment since that’s my only bill that is not payable with a cc.
Ariana, why are you still neglecting to mention that we can’t use Visa cards (of any stripe) to make mortgage payments via platiq? Or did something change? You knew this right, and yet you still built a post around an assumption that’s just not true.
ps, if this does get 3x on Ink (of one variety or another?) on other payments (other than mortgages) via plastiq (like taxes), then sure, potentially good news there. (though warning that plastiq payments are often very badly delayed/mishandled by your local taxing authorities — as I experienced last time… still appealing that one…)
Agree this is totally misleading as Plastiq does not allow mortgage payments by Visa anymore. Rent yes, car payments yes.
Oversight – post has been fixed.
How can I use plastic to send money to myself?
You can’t.
As others have mentioned, both VISA & AMEX cards can’t be used on Plastiq to pay for Mortgages. Please make the necessary changes in the blog.
Without mortgage paying, it’s hard to spend more than 2K monthly to me.
So much hate! She stated that she used it for mortgage in the past (not currently). And she says that it can be used for rent… which you can currently do. Please read the article before making false accusations.
Oh come on… To lead off the blog discussing mortgage payments and then not to clarify that mortgage payments no longer work on CIP is pretty misleading to those that don’t use plastiq.
I’m sure she’ll update the post to be for only rent and not mortgages! Thank you for the correct info. Maybe cut a little slack and realize this can and should be a team effort- you all included! Ariana maybe missed something while she was volunteering at a refugee camp or something- yah know- other worthwhile activities in life.
Any data points on the Ink Cash card? What category is Plastiq coding as?
This is probably not going to last any longer than 3x with Sapphire Reserve did
So I take it the you can’t use the Chase Ink Business Cash which was converted by Chase from a Mastercard to a Visa. So are Chase ink Preferred cards mastercards?
Thanks for the info. I’ve made IRS tax payments with Plastiq and CIP — keeping fingers crossed for 3x
Let me know!
Well?
If you pay rent to a person rather than a company, does Plastiq allow for this? If so does the coding still work on the CIP?
You can get 100,000 sign-up bonus points with Chase Ink Business by going into a branch vs 80,000 for on-line.
My dad actually just got one in the mail the other day. He missed out on the 100k Sapphire Reserve bonus, so this was a nice surprise.
Yes! I just got approved for this card yesterday (in branch) so I was offered the 100k bonus..wooo who. Plan to meet minimum spend using Plastiq like I did with the CSR.
You can use the referral code 656912 to get 500 fee-free dollars when signing up for Plastiq